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Traditional climbing, often abbreviated to "trad", is a style of rock climbing in which routes are climbed from the bottom up, preferably first try, using just the climbers' body to progress up the rock. The protection is placed by the lead climber as they ascend, and used solely to catch the climber in the event of a fall, rather than to aid upward progress. It is a form of free climbing. (A for the most part accurate but simplistic description that disregards some of the boldest free climbing around. Such as repeating a lead bolted face climb, such as the world renown Bachar/Yerrian.)
Traditional climbing emphasizes the adventure aspect of rock climbing -- in fact, it's sometimes called "adventure climbing" in Australia; as such it contrasts with sport climbing, which emphasizes the athletic aspect.
Trad climbing in the United Kingdom
England has a long tradition of "clean" climbing, (no hammer or pitons) especially on gritstone. home to some of the boldest climbs in the world.
- In the United Kingdom, "traditional" means that all protection is placed by the leader and removed by the following climber.
- In early 2006 Dave McLeod, renowned climber out of Glasgow, Scotland, sent Rhapsody (E11/7a) at Dumbarton Rock (Scotland) for the world's first E11 grade.
Trad Climbing in Australia
Major Trad areas:
- Arapiles: Solid sandstone trad climbing with the occasional bolt on the harder lines. ~ 2000 routes in a small area.
- The Grampians: Sandstone and quartzite, huge area.
- Blue Mountains: sandstone
- Point Perpendicular: Sandstone, top down, sea cliff climbing.
Trad climbing in the United States
Traditional climbing emphasizes the skills necessary to do first ascents. Most of the so called rules or ethics are geared along this line of thought. Adventure and exploration are inherent parts of rock climbing. Traditional climbing has gone through various incarnations often defined by what it is not. Originally it was climbing and the goal was to get to the top by any means possible. With the conceptual separation of rock climbing from aid climbing, trad became defined by the ideal of minimizing the use of aid through the development of a set of guidelines often referred to as Trad ethics. A set of guidelines that tried to define what was fair game and what wasn't. Sport climbing came out of a refusal to accept the limitations of those rules.
In North America, a route may be described as "traditional" even if there are bolts already in place on the route, as long as these bolts were placed while on lead, rather than rappel, and only where absolutely necessary for safe passage.
Major Trad climbing areas of the US:
- Yosemite Valley: Home of the Big Wall
- Tuolumne Meadows: alpine meadows and solid granite domes. Primarily bolted trad climbs
- The Needles (Ca): High Quality
- The Black Hills of S.D.: History
- The Gunks:
- Joshua Tree N.P.: over 4,000 routes
Notable Trad Climbers
- John Bachar
- Peter Croft
- Roger Briggs
Trad in the rest of the world
Sources
See also
"Traditional climbing"